


Method to Madness

by littsz



Category: Elder Scrolls, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Not Really Character Death, Shivering Isles (Elder Scrolls), Short, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-19 05:15:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29621166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littsz/pseuds/littsz
Summary: The tale of Jyggalag, how he became Sheogorath and back again, and what they thought during it all.Currently a short two-shot, but with the potential to expand.
Kudos: 1





	1. Jyggalag

It started, as many tales do, with jealousy.

There's nothing complicated about it. Jyggalag was the most powerful Prince and the others were jealous. So they conspired to get rid of him. It was all very logical. Inevitable.

He knew it was going to happen, just like how he knows everything that has happened, that will happen, that is happening. How could he not? With the formulae from his coveted Great Library, he knew what the Princes would do before they themselves even began to formulate their grand plan.

So, even though he loathed it with every part of his being, he permitted himself to be caught in their traps, torn apart, and rearranged into the very bane of his existence - Madness himself.

Of course, he tried to avert this terrible future. He hunted and dug and searched for a solution, but nothing worked. The predictions were always the same - he was doomed to be overthrown. There were some changes in each iteration, sure, depending on the input, some futures harsher than others - but his ultimate defeat was inevitable. No matter what he does, they will always find a way. The predictions were absolute. His fate was sealed.

Jyggalag despaired.


	2. Sheogorath

Sheogorath was desperate.

Another era has come and nearly gone, or was it another era that was coming and nearly here? Either way, the Greymarch was on the move, stomping its menacing way closer and closer to his future.

He didn't want it to happen again. He had no desire to see his beloved realm purged, his creations destroyed, his subjects slaughtered - all by his own hands. It kills him a bit too, inside, like a hand had reached into his ribcage and played ball with his bloody organ.

He's tried everything, well, maybe not quite _everything_ \- the possibilities are quite literally endless after all when you were as mad as Sheogorath - but for all the good they did it might as well have been nothing. The Greymarch still marched, again and again and he was absolutely sick of it, thinking that this was it, that he's got the solution ( _eureka!_ ), and then feeling the crushing disappointment every time he woke as Sheogorath again and it _wasn't_ and everything was gone and he had to start over and over and over and over.

If only he had Jyggalag's power of prediction, his prediliction to ponder the past, the present, the future! _He_ would surely know what to do to escape this wretched existence.

Maybe he was going about it the wrong way. He's always tried to get rid of Jyggalag, has tried driving himself beyond the brink of madness so that order wouldn't have a chance to seep in, but Jyggalag was still a Daedric Prince in his own right, despite everything, and is eternal, and the Greymarch always marched, sure as clockwork, just as scheduled - and ironically always, always at the turn of an era, when Nirn succumbs to glorious chaos and teeters on the cusp of change - lifeblood of the Isles - when everyone's gone so delightfully _mad_. And when the dust settles, and order - insipid, insidious, boring order - grips the mortal realms again, Sheogorath, as eternal as Jyggalag, returns to his devastated Madhouse to pick up the pieces and piece together Madness again, like a puzzle that never quite fits. And the cycle repeats, and no one wins, and Sheogorath feels like weeping and giggling all at the same time.

There had to be a way. There had to be, or his name wouldn't be Sheogorath. Maybe he'd be Ann Marie instead. But back to the Greymarch! Maybe he could make everyone march backwards for an entire month? No, no, no, no, not nearly mad enough. He needs something truly and utterly _mad_ , so mad and utterly backwards that even Jyggalag would become Sheogorath. Now there's a thought. Utterly insane. But maybe... maybe that's it! Maybe all he needed to do was to go back to being Jyggalag. Embrace the change. Change into a brace! But he'll need another Sheogorath to look after his realm while he's gone, someone competent enough to take on him to take him on and actually stop the Greymarch, because, being equals and opposites, only the Prince of Madness can face off the Prince of Order and come out more or less unscathed - the very reason for this very mess in the very first place.

He needed a Champion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end for now - I originally wrote this many years ago with the intention of posting it when I had more written, but the plot bunnies didn't bite and life moved on. I recently got back into Oblivion and thought that this ficlet still made sense on its own as it is, so here we are. I might post more if I do expand this story (I did have plans for it), but we'll see whether the plot bunnies are feeling up for it.
> 
> Thank you for reading!


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